The ICC's Cricket Committee has recommended that stricter penalties be imposed on teams and captains who fail to maintain stipulated over-rates, especially in Test matches.

The ICC's Cricket Committee has recommended that stricter penalties be imposed on teams and captains who fail to maintain stipulated over-rates, especially in Test matches.

In a two-day meeting at Lord's that concluded on Tuesday, the committee felt that harsher punishments be imposed for slow over-rates.

The committee feels "the current legislated requirement of 15 overs per hour was appropriate, achievable and realistic."

It recommended that "if teams and, in particular, captains, fell below these expected levels then stricter penalties should be enforced."

It recommended that the penalties should include stricter enforcement of the ICC Code of Conduct and the Laws of Cricket (42.9, Time-wasting by the fielding side and 42.10, Batsman wasting time) and a doubling of fines for a failure to maintain the required over-rates.

"It also recommended that if a captain led a team that received three over-rate fines in the same format of the game in any 12-month period then he should automatically face a suspension."

The committee felt that host boards also need to be more diligent in ensuring there are minimum delays. It said that in the there was an average delay of 14 minutes per Test caused by issues around sight-screens in the past six months.